The tale of the project

As we entered the 2nd year of the project in September, our students have started working on the so called our common tale. It will be a collaborative effort of the students from the 6 partner schools and will consist of the characteristics of each nation's folk-tale tradition. The Hungarian team wrote the introduction of the story in October 2018:

"Once upon a time, in an unspecified location in the heart of Europe, beyond the mountains of glass, on the shore of the Great Sea of Dreams (but still in Europe), there existed an enchanted round forest, in the corner of which the Kingdom of Czüczüy (pronounced: tsootsoo) resided.

The elder king, His Divine Swineness John von Czüczüy (still pronounced: tsootsoo) had a minor heart attack one day, and realized, that his kingdom had no heir for the throne.

While it is true, that His Majesty had a daughter revered amongst the denizens of the forest and beyond for various reasons, due to feudal laws, as a woman, despite her beautiful long fur covering all of her body, her healthily puffy size, and those beautiful emerald green eyes, she couldn't inherit the throne.

And thus, the Battle Royale was announced, a series of tournaments, the victor of which would inherit the hand of the 'beautiful' pig princess, as well as the Throne to the Largest Kingdom in the World. Needless to say, it was an absolute mess, an utterly bloody conflict."

Here is the start of the conflict written by the Portuguese team:

"The rules were: 3 challenges, 3 contestants, 3 days. The winner would have the princess' hand and inherit the throne. The princess (Maria de Fátima) was outraged with the news, why couldn't a woman be the heir to the throne? Revolted that her father would do this to her! Who could help her? The Devil! Yes, he'd be of help; she'd heard stories about him all throughout her life and knew where he lived. Maybe he could fix this!

That night, she escaped from the castle, running through the dark woods and crossing the blood river until she faced the entrance of hell. The devil was having a feast:

"What do I owe this pleasure?" - He sat on his throne, blood scattered on the table cloth as he smiled creepily.

And so, she told him everything, along with her plan to use magic to sabotage other contestants, becoming the winner and consequently assuming the throne alone.

"This magic comes with a price", the devil said, "I'll help you.... But if you fail and lose this competition, you'll be mine forever". She agreed and left, clueless of the mess she'd made, not even imagining what the devil had planned."

Here is the development of the conflict written by the Danish team:

On the way out of hell, she heard the devil scream, "Before you leave,
I would love for you to prove yourself. Muhahahahahahahaaa!" The princess was horrified of what the Devil was planning. Her steps grew faster, more frantic. Eventually, she started running - scrambling towards what she thought was safety. But, suddenly the
floor fell from underneath her. She plunged into a body of water which - despite the heat of Hell - was frigid as the hands of death. She could feel her lungs being filled with water, as she suddenly spotted a small light lighting up the depth of the water.
Despite her desperate need for air, she couldn't help but swim towards it, and when she reached the tiny gleam she could hear a big crowd cheering. She reached out to touch it and suddenly everything turned in on itself like a vortex and she found herself
in a giant arena, facing a horde of demons roaring and clapping. "Now!", she heard the devil's voice from above her, "you will face a challenge, tougher than any. No man - or woman - has ever survived." She felt her stomach twist. The devil's eyes darkened
as he spoke:

"EGG RRRRRACE!" The crowd went crazy! All sorts of foods and drinks
went flying through the air, and demons of all kinds were now sitting on the edge of their chair.

The race consisted of 3 laps with 3 obstacles. Once the finish line was crossed the race would be finished and the contestant who won would break his deal with the devil. As soon as the princess stepped on the start line she realized that she wasn't the only one who was competing for devil's mercy. There were a few others who fooled themselves into making this deadly pact with him not realizing that they will soon be dead. The bell rang to mark the official start of the competition. Our princess started running but she didn't make it far till she reached her first obstacle: firewalking! Her royal swine-ness couldn't possibly imagine getting her soft pig princess feet getting roasted. Every other contestant ran past her leaving her behind. The devil didn't find this interesting enough so he decided to 'help her out ' by summoning a horde of pig eating goblins and sending them after her. The pig princess had no other choice than to cross this long path of burning coal. She was halfway through the path when the goblins started catching up to her, but with a swing of a sword perished within seconds. It was another contestant who came to save our helpless princess. I'm lord Horvat from the kingdom of Croatia, I couldn't help myself when I noticed you were in danger so I had to come.˝' he said. Our pig princess thought to herself 'I've never seen someone as brave as him. There's no doubt that any of those ignorant, incompetent princes would do such a thing for me. The thought that they're at this very moment fighting for my hand is sickening!'. She thanked him for his act of bravery and our pair proceeded with the egg race together. With each challenge, their bond grew stronger and their feelings for one another blossomed along with it. Once they had reached the second obstacle every other contestant was killed off. With just a snap of a finger, the devil made the ground to open up swallowing the princess and separating our couple.

Down, down, down... the poor princess Maria de Fatima was slipping between two sharp rock-walls, desperately trying to grasp the bough branches. At the end, she happened to land on a narrow stone prominence, her legs and hands hurting and bleeding, and her beautiful fur scraped Completely alone in the deepest hole of hell: what worst could happen to her, she wondered.

In the meanwhile, in the kingdom of Czuczu, the tournament between the 2 knights, Lord Rambaldo and Lord Teodoro, was going on, but suddenly the king realized the princess was no longer there. He sent his guards to look for her around, but in vain. The desperate king gave the tournament up, challenging the contestants to go and find the princess: the one who found her, would be her husband and the future king!

Promptly the 2 knights rushed into the wood. While riding they were peering to each other wondering: 'Dam!!Where is Lord Horvat? Had he kidnapped the princess?'. They went on riding. The trees were getting thicker and thicker, but sapless like a gloomy, ghostly forest. Suddenly, they saw Lord Horvart's horse tied to a tree branch next to a horrible entrance: was it the Gates of Hell? Bravely they went in and few steps where enough to assist the ground swallowing Her Divine Swineness.

The Devil's voice was dreadfully heard: "Just in time!" he giggled. " The princess is my prisoner! Who among you is ready to fight me and conquer her hand?".

From the depth of the Hole, Maria could hear the echo of those words and thought: "Should I be just a prize once again? NEVER! I want to be the owner of my destiny!! Neither magic nor the Evil's sordid tricks have helped me to conquer freedom: now I'll only trust my intelligence!!"

Check back in early April and read on Our Common European Tale! Until then, look at the photos taken during the Hungarian workshop!